一聽音樂網

For Melbourne rapper Bias B, hip-hop isnt just music. It footy, darts and a laugh with your mates, writes Khalil Hegarty.

It's an ordinary afternoon and Melbourne hip-hop MC Bias B is at home in Clifton Hill. He's been living here for more than five years and has no plans to leave. "I don't want to move anywhere else," he says.

Relaxing on his couch in his lounge room, Bias, above - christened Adam Stevens- is in his element. There's a well-worn collection of hip-hop videos on the shelves, the occasional sound of a flatmate in the background, and the occasional appearance of the household's cat, Couscous. On the weekend he kicked the footy with some mates, played darts and drank some wine.

This is Australian hip-hop at home, a world away from the bragging and posturing of its US counterpart. Australian hip-hop is an environment of familiar elements, ordinary people, and local accents.

"You've got to find the hip-hop that you can relate to," the 29-year-old says. "The whole thing about doing it in your own tongue is that you understand places that are being spoken about. It can come from anyone; you don't have to have had a hard life, you don't have to have a good life, you don't have to be any person doing anything and you can still make hip-hop. It's just the music you feel, you've got something to say and you let it out."